Maywood police seek suspect in fatal shooting

June 17, 2004

Maywood police said Wednesday they are seeking a suspect and a motive in the weekend slaying of a 22-year-old man outside his home.

Johnnie H. Cox was shot in the chest, hip and legs and was pronounced dead shortly before 3 a.m. Saturday in Loyola University Medical Center, Maywood, according to Brian Black, a spokesman for the Maywood Police Department.

Black said a friend had driven Cox to his home in the 800 block of South 13th Avenue. As Cox was getting out of the car around 2:30 a.m., a man wearing a hooded sweatshirt ran up and fired several shots at Cox. Black said the friend then drove Cox to Loyola.

Police received calls reporting shots fired in the neighborhood, but officers who went to the vicinity found no victim, Black said. Minutes later, the hospital told police a gunshot victim had arrived, Black said. Officers were dispatched to the hospital, where the friend described the incident, he said.

Investigators have not been able to identify a suspect or a motive for the shooting, according to Black. He said Cox had had contact with Maywood police, which he declined to describe, but the nature of the contact would not in itself indicate a motive or suspect in the attack. He said the attacker made no attempt to rob the victim.

Anyone with information on the attack should call the Maywood police at 708-450-4471 and ask for the Investigative Division.

Cox' death was the fifth homicide this year in Maywood. There were nine homicides in Maywood during the first half of last year, according to Maywood Police Chief James E. Collier Jr.